The present invention pertains to personal identification systems and more particularly to a remote tracking and access control system for individuals in an institutional setting.
It is highly desirable to track individuals and to permit access by certain individuals to certain facilities in an institutional setting. For example, it is advantageous to be able to monitor and track prisoners within a prison system. It is equally advantageous to monitor access by patients in a hospital to various facilities.
In the prisoner situation, prisoners may be allowed or denied access to food lines, certain areas of the prison such as an exercise yard or a particular cell block.
In the hospital scenario, the patient may be allowed access to certain areas of the hospital or access to certain medications or therapy.
Present systems utilize badges with bar codes which may be scanned by a scanning system and appropriate action taken. However, these bar code systems are not uniform and several different systems may be required to exist within an institution such as a prison or a hospital.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have an inexpensive identification system for each institutional user which can readily discriminate among users for tracking and controlling user's access to various facilities.